Dangerous Pleasures: A Decade of Stories

The title story of this collection begins with a sober, realistic scene in a hospital where a young woman named Shuna is taking her final few breaths while her parents watch over her. After Shuna 's death, the mother must figure out what to do with this estranged daughter's belongings. Where the story ends is somewhere so unexpected and surprising I had to read it twice to make sure I got it right. This is the power of the stories in this book. Gale's talent is to take the physical world with its recognizable characters functioning within ordinary relationships and expose the wilful human emotion that flows riotously beneath all those social niceties. The result is that the every-dayness of their lives is distorted, transformed and irrevocably altered. These characters' desires don't simply occasionally spring up from some hidden corner of consciousness; the world is shown to be composed of nothing but desires. When the characters decide to claim their pleasure at the expense of others there are often causalities such as the breakup of a marriage or a body on the floor. The stories include an impressive variety of perspectives ranging from a young girl to a nostalgic father to a recent widow. In the story `The Wig' a housewife undergoes a personality change when she alters her appearance. It reveals a side to herself that is unwilling to tolerate the way her former self was treated by those closest to her. The story `Paint' depicts a man named Andrew's tense visit with his father which is interrupted by a trip to meet an eccentric brother/sister team of artists. Andrew's attempts to strengthen the delicate father/son relationship are thwarted by his father having a spontaneous affair. Some of the stories also vary greatly in style. For instance, `A Slight Chill' has undertones which verge on the gothic when an English teacher cares for two of her pupils during a vacation with tragic results. Other stories are less dramatic in tone, but still quietly explosive. A woman returning to London with her female lover discovers that her mother is more accepting of her relationship than she expected in `The List.' A father returns to his old public school with his wife to determine whether they should send their son there in `Old Boys.' He's haunted by memories of an intensely romantic relationship he had there with an older boy. These stories turn conventional ideas about gender, marriage and sexuality on their heads. Surprising, memorable and with a good degree of humor leaning toward the macabre, each story in this collection is a gem.